Health Canada Revised Feeding Recommendations: What You Need To Know

The guidelines have recently changed for introducing solids to our little ones, we’ve compiled a list of some of the important changes from Health Canada.

This September at Baby Basics we talked all about feeding at our Every Little Step events sponsored by Walmart Canada.

Introducing solids to our little ones is an exciting time but it also brings up a lot of questions and concerns from parents who aren't sure what foods are okay early on and which to avoid. Health Canada recently revised it's recommendations and we have the most important changes listed below.

Start later and lumpy: The recommendation used to be to start introducing solids at 4 months, they are now recommending parents wait until 6 months. Start with iron rich foods that are lumpy. It's important to introduce textures early on to avoid aversions to texture as you move on to bigger foods. We gave away a fantasic mini food processor by munchkin at our Baby Basics event – it is a great tool to create a variety of textures for your little one to try.

Start with iron rich foods: In addition to (or even in place of) iron-fortified cereal, mashed beans and minced meats can be introduced first, including eggs which used to be on the list of foods not to feed little ones under a year.

No bees, please: Avoid honey, but everything else is fair game. The list of foods to avoid under for under 1's used to include strawberries, peanuts, eggs, sesame and soy. Health Canada is recommending to introduce the most common allergens as one of the first foods other than honey (due to potential botulism poisoning). Wait two days between introducing the most common allergies to catch any reactions.

Do your research: Find more information and keep up to date about the changes and read more about allergens and what to do for parents with a family history of allergies.

What to feed your baby at every age and stage: http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/health-sante/infant-care-soins-bebe/nutrition-alimentation-eng.php

Read more about the revised recommendations: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/infant-nourisson/recom/recom-6-24-months-6-24-mois-eng.php#a6

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